In contemporary mobile networks, the hardware and software capabilities of the mobile terminals are characterized by the following aspects:                The (hardware) capabilities of the mobile terminal, i.e. what the User Equipment can (physically) do. This is usually determined by the terminal's hardware and firmware. These properties of the mobile terminal further depend on the equivalent capabilities of the serving cell/serving network, e.g. when the User Equipment is HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) capable and the network only supports non-HSPA WCDMA (Wideband CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)) R'99, or vice versa, then the lowest capability is the limiting factor (so even if the User Equipment is HSPA capable the network cannot use these capabilities). These capabilities are usually not easily changeable during normal operation without significant capability upgrades/exchanges; these are therefore called the “hard limits” of the mobile terminal        Configuration and subscription parameters pertinent to the User Equipment—the latter usually by means of a subscriber identity module card (binding the User Equipment to a subscription OR customizing the User Equipment to a subscription)—i.e. what the User Equipment is allowed to do. These properties further depend on the configuration of the serving cell/serving network and the subscription parameters stored in the network, e.g. the HLR/HSS. Similar to the hard limits of the User Equipment, the lowest capability of these configuration and subscription parameters is the limiting factor in case of differences between the terminal and the network. These properties are usually changeable during normal operation by means of reconfiguration of the User Equipment and/or network, or by modifying the subscription and subscription parameters; these are therefore called the “soft limits” of the mobile terminal.        
It is possible that the hard limits of the terminal (or User Equipment) are further restricted by the soft limits. E.g., the terminal and network may be capable of a certain maximal bandwidth on the radio interface, but the subscription only allows the User Equipment to use a lower maximum bandwidth.
Conversely, it is possible that the soft limits of the terminal are further restricted by the hard limits, e.g. the terminal is allowed to use a certain maximum bandwidth but the capability of the terminal or the serving cell/serving network are lower.
Consequently to the above, a terminal or User Equipment necessarily always operates within the intersection of its hard limits and its soft limits.
Given that the subscription aspects of the soft limits are applied to the terminal or User Equipment by a usually changeable subscriber identity module card, it is possible that identical terminals may have different soft limits, as determined by their respective SIM. It is also possible that the same terminal has different soft limits when the SIM card is changed. Furthermore, given that the configuration aspects of the soft limits can be modified (reconfigured), i.e. from a first configuration at a first point in time to a second configuration at a second point in time, the same terminal with the same subscriber identity module card can have different soft limits (at different points in time), depending on said configuration. Furthermore, as the terminal may operate in different cells/networks with different limitations and configurations, both the applicable hard and soft limits of the same terminal may be different between serving cells/serving networks.
According to the state of the art, User Equipments only have a single combination of hard limits and soft limits at one given point in time.